Humanitarian organisation Graines de Bitume was founded in March 2000 by a group of French and Madagascan volunteers from Médecins Sans Frontières and friends to find much-needed solutions to the problems affecting Antananarivo's street kids. The organisation now runs two centres and provides services for 240 children trying to survive on the streets.

The families of the children supported by Graines de Bitume are victims of extreme poverty and social deprivation. Their living conditions are deplorable with many of them having to make do with makeshift shelters in the most insalubrious parts of town. Graines de Bitume’s youth workers, counsellors and welfare workers are all too familiar with these areas of Antananarivo and work closely with the families living there.

These families struggle to survive on the little money they manage to scrape together from begging, sorting rubbish and odd-jobbing. But their kids dream of a better life. They want a real home, a proper job - hopes and aspirations they share with the Graines de Bitume team. We work alongside these children and their families to give them the means to fulfil their ambitions and enable them to take their future into their own hands.

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Patricia, Graines’ first high school graduatePatricia, 22, arrived at Graines de Bitume in 2002. She graduated from high-school last September. We are all – kids and team alike – immensely proud of our very first high-school graduate. Her achievement is an encouraging example for all the other children at Graines de Bitume, for whom Patricia is a true source of inspiration, and also for the team who has been working with these youngsters for twelve years now. To help our young beneficiaries even further along their way to achieving their ambitions, we have set up a new “post-high school diploma” programme to give them access to further education. Patricia, who wants to study law, will be the first student to benefit from the new programme.